Wednesday, April 15, 2009

I love this cup of tea. I love it. And it is sent to me by Sonam Paljor Lama, who lives in Darjeeling and operates FreshDarjeelingTea.com (opening soon) and his blog, http://blog.freshdarjeelingtea.com/ Sonam was kind enough to send me a sample, which I am really enjoying right now. Thank you, Sonam!

THE TEAThe tea comes from the Arya Estate, and is the brand-new 2009 spring tea. As a first flush, I expect the tea to be light and bright, with an airy flavor. Let's see how that expectation bears out.

THE PREPARATIONFiltered, boiling water into my cast-iron Tetsubin, over 4 teaspoons of tea, for 3 minutes. This tea can go for maybe up to 5 minutes, but I'll go with a shorter infusion for my first time.

DRY LEAVESThe dry leaves are tightly furled, ranging from forest green to a brighter spring green. When opening the package, such an unusual smell-- a smell of vegetal decomposition, almost pine. I love smelling things that seem unidentifiable but beautiful.

WET LEAVESWhat a wonderful, strong scent comes from the wet leaves: like ash, like honey, tobacco-sweet. The leaves opened up into beautiful green-brown leaf fragments.

THE CUPBeautiful amber-brown cup, transparent and clean. The flavor is bright and intense-- nothing relaxed about this tea. It seems like it's shouting, or dancing. It has a very pleasant astringent dryness that moves across the tongue, and the flavor is so caught up in the fragrance. Sonam suggested the tea is like roasted honey, and I am inclined to agree with him. But to say that seems to make it seem cloying, when it is bracing instead. What an exciting cup of tea! This is why I drink Darjeelings.

THE SECOND CUPAs I pour the second cup, I must come back to the leaves. As they've sat a few minutes, they have become more floral, with a grape arbor scent. Imagine sitting under a grape-leaf canopy in northern Italy, smelling the fragrance and taking in the scenery-- that's what this makes me think of.

The color of the cup is still the same richly brown-amber appearance, clear to the bottom of the cup.

Now that the cup has had a few minutes to cool, and as it allows the complex chemistry in the pot to deepen and add layers to the flavor, I definitely notice a honey scent that strongly makes me think of a beehive. Rather pungent and delicious. There is a roasted flavor as well. (And that sounds exactly like Sonam's description! Remind me not to read other people's reviews before I make my own.)

The flavor seems to lock in immediately, and then stay intense all the way through until the aftertaste, where it remains a sort of bright tingle at the back of the mouth and throat. Even after the second cup, I am not losing the intensity. But rather, there is a mellow smoothness developing in the cup as it cools slightly.

This is an extraordinary and intriguing cup of tea, the best I've had in quite a while. This seems like just that perfect Darjeeling-- bright, sharp, sweet, layered, and unique.

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About Me

The 39 Steeps Tea Club now operates out of Valeo Academy, in Hoffman Estates IL, where I teach English Literature. Our students are learning about tea so they can stay awake during my lecture/discussions on The Brothers Karamazov, or Beowulf, or The Canterbury Tales, or Frankenstein. And while they're here, we practice being observant, paying attention to what comes into our mouths as well as what comes out of them.

If your tea company would like a bunch of caffeinated high schoolers and their teachers to explore your wares and maybe write about them, please contact me at SLKnoerr ((at)) gmail ((dot)) com.

FTC DISCLOSUREMy many tea friends frequently provide me with free gifts of tea and related products, which I can then review and assess as I see fit. Please consider every item reviewed here to be a gift, unless otherwise noted. Copyright 2011, The 39 Steeps.